Cold Shoulder
by LittleMissDementorsKiss
Summary: I was never a huge fan of Simone, so I decided to do this instead. When Claire  OC  is sent to help Flynn in Verkhoyansk, there's some animosity. What happenes when that same animosity decides between life or death?
1. Chapter 1

He had just sat down at the linoleum topped table when a girl walked up and sat across from him. Like him, she was sweating. Her bangs were shoved back, making her look like she had some sort of mullet-gone-worse but effectively cooling her forehead.

Flynn eyed her for a moment, then pulled out his Big Mac. "Who are you?" He asked calmly before taking a bite.

"Those things will give you a heart attack." She pointed out, not answering his question.

"Believe me, a heart attack is probably the least likely thing to kill me." He replied, smiling slightly at his own private joke before taking a long sip of his Coke.

Still, it would suck to be killed by a burger after all the death-defying missions you've been on, wouldn't it?" She said, grinning.

"Who are you?" He repeated, a bit more urgently this time.

"Relax, Carsen. Judson sent me."

"Because that answers my question." He retorted sarcastically. She giggled.

"Keep your wig on. My name is Claire. I'm supposed to go with you to Verkhoyansk." She said.

He had noticed that her clothing was, like his own, unusual for the sweltering heat outside. He still couldn't believe they were shipping him off to the coldest permanent settlement on earth.

"How can I be sure?" He asked suspiciously. Being the Librarian had taught him a thing or two about caution.

"Have I given you any reason to distrust me?" She asked in return.

"With all due respect, I've met several dishonest people in my time and none of them have said 'before I introduce myself, here are the reasons you shouldn't trust me…' I have a feeling you're smarter than that. So let me repeat myself; how can I be sure?"

"Do I look dangerous?" she tried again.

"Do I?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow.

She hesitated, then seemed to mentally agree that he had a point. "Fine, fine. Finish up your McHeartAttack and let's pay a visit to the library."

It didn't take long for him to scarf down the rest of his burger, and they left for the library.

He let her lead him to the shelf with the secret lever. She knew her way there, which made him relax a little. _Still, _ he reminded himself, _that doesn't mean she's legit._

She pulled down the copy of Midsummer's Night Dream and he felt the floor vibrate slightly as the shelf moved. They stepped into the elevator and waited for the small chamber to make its way down to the many stories to the most precious rooms of the building. After a while, she spoke up, breaking the patient silence.

"I remember my first trip down here. It was awkward how long it took when I didn't know where I was going." She reminisced

Flynn remembered the same feeling.

"Judson didn't seem to find anything wrong with it though." She continued thoughtfully.

Then the doors opened, and they stepped together through the security.

"Judson!" She called out as she stepped foot directly in front of the arc of the covenant.

She was close to the box, too close for Flynn to be comfortable. He halfway stepped forward. "Don't touch it." He warned.

She shot him a look. "I'm not stupid, Carsen." She said, then turned back to the empty room. She folded her arms impatiently in front of her and tapped her foot. "Judson" she repeated.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." As always, his voice came before he did, but it didn't take long for him to appear before them.

"Claire?" He asked, surprised. I wasn't expecting you. You were supposed to leave with Flynn almost an hour ago.

"He didn't believe me." She said. She rolled her eyes and hooked her thumb over her shoulder indicating he was right behind her.

"I told you about this, Flynn." Judson said, wrinkling his brow.

Flynn shook his head. Judson nodded his.

"Can you just tell him that I'm O.K. so we can get a move on. Verkhoyansk will melt by the time he figures this out on his own." Claire suggested impatiently

"Why are you so damn condescending?" Flynn asked.

"Why do you have to be so overcautious?" she countered. "And you should know better than to be wearing glasses. Don't you own contact lenses?"

"Yes." He said. "But why are glasses bad. Do they annoy you or something." He noticed that both Judson and Claire were staring at him, openmouthed. He rethought his words, then gasped at his own stupidity.

"Figure it out, did you?" Claire asked smugly. "I've heard all these stories about how smart you are, but I must say I'm disappointed."

"Shut up." Said Flynn, somewhat embarrassed. He remembered that glasses weren't the only thing he had packed that could freeze onto him. "I need to repack." By this point he was completely ashamed of the idiocy he'd displayed.

"Whatevs." She said, trying hard not to laugh. "I'll wait here."

"Oh, no you don't." said Judson. "I'm buying two more tickets for you, telling Charlene it was your fault that we wasted money on a flight you missed, and you're going straight to the airport. You are _not_ missing another flight."

"So why can't I wait here?" Claire asked, not seeing his point.

"Because you're going with him. Directly from his apartment to the plane. No dilly-dallying. This is not the time to smell the roses. You need to save the world, here."

Claire scowled. "You better make it quick." She said, glaring at him.

"Well, this will be a fun flight." Flynn said loudly 'to himself' as they walked back to the McDonalds down the street. "Whose car will we take?"

"Yours" Claire said simply, then went on to explain the decision. "I live right there. I walked." She pointed at a building across the street diagonally.

Flynn was exasperated with this girl's ego. Even saying the simplest things she managed to make him feel inferior. It was her tone of voice, he decided. She sounded pretentious, and the faint British accent didn't help. She couldn't even call him by his first name!

Though, when he thought about it, Carsen sounded a lot more informal than Flynn would have coming from her lips. It was backwards and nonsensical, but it seemed true.

When they got to his house, he let her in and left her in the front room. He focused on un-packing and repacking his suitcase. He needed to change his parka to one with a plastic zipper, change all his jeans to zipperless sweats, and painstakingly search each and every sweater, sweatshirt, and hoodie for traces of metal. When he was sure nothing could freeze together, he switched his bag to one with a plastic zip and hauled it over his shoulder. He passed through the front room on his way to the door and realized it was empty. He dropped his bag on the floor by the door and turned.

"Claire?" He called. There was no answer. "Claire?"

He called once more, and this time heard a loud crash and a cry of pain in the room to his right.


	2. Chapter 2

He rushed into the room, and was horrified at what he saw.

"Damn it, Claire! How could you do something like that?"

The library paid him a pretty hefty salary, even with the routine deductions Charlene took pride in making. It was enough for him to afford his own personal library. It had all of his favorite books, some he read just because he wanted to, some he read because he needed to do research, some he read for lack of anything else to read, and some that were… all over the carpeted floor.

"It's your fault, Carsen. You left them in a precarious position! And look what that useless medical dictionary did to my arm."

She pointed to a very thick leather-bound book that was laying on the floor. Its pages were bent and it looked broken. He knelt down beside it and cradled it in his arms.

"It's not useless." He said softly, rocking the book gently as if it were his baby. "It's reference"

"It is too." She protested, holding her left arm and wincing whenever she moved. "It may be reference, but it's from 1988. It's outdated."

"Look at this." He said, showing her a page that had been torn in the process of falling. "What on earth compelled you to do this?"

"I was under the imperius curse." She said sarcastically. He glared at her before she gave the true cause of her suffering. "I was looking through your library, which as much as I hate to say it is quite impressive, and you're books were stacked precariously. I ran my finger over the spines and they collapsed."

Flynn shook his head in disbelief. He treated his books like children, and he'd never put them in danger. She was a liar, and that was that. After seeing that she was o.k., more as a civilized courtesy than out of actually caring, he quickly grabbed his duffle bag, slung his trusty carry-on messenger bag over his shoulder, and went to load his car. It was time to go to the airport.

Claire was sick and tired of this. They were on a ten-year-or-so long layover in Fairbanks and she was bored. Flynn was too busy reading to talk to her and he didn't trust her enough to handle any of the hundreds of books he'd brought with him, so she had nothing to read. One of Judson's rules (of which he had many) was that while on adventures, they had to use disposable go-phones. The sad thing about the aforementioned go-phones was that the aforementioned go-phones had nothing fun on them. Her admittedly lame iPod Nano was out of charge. So yes, it was perfectly justifiable that she was bored.

"Flynn." she said, hoping to break him from his literary trance.

"Huh?" He replied absentmindedly.

"I'm bored"

"O.k." He answered.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"vaguely."

"Do have any ideas as to what I could do?"

"Not really."

"That's a great idea, Flynn. I'm sure that will occupy my mind!" She said with sarcastic enthusiasm.

"Good for you."

"How much longer?"

"You sound like a three year old."

"A bit irritated, are we?"

I don't like small planes, so yes, I am a bit grumpy."

"Give me a book and I'll shut up." She offered in a sing-song voice, almost taunting him

"You physically harmed an important diagnostic tool. You're coming nowhere near my books." He said. "Now shut up and wait for the plane."

"We need to discuss the mission." She pointed out, literally. The tip of her hot pink self-manicured nails grazed his khaki-colored sweater as she did, and he flinched.

"We'll do that on the plane. And please don't touch me."

"Touching!" She sang as she purposefully poked his arm. He shook it off.

"You really are three years old, aren't you."

"Maturity is overrated." She quipped, and he took in a deep breath, trying to steady his temper. He wasn't an angry person, but this girl could get on his nerves. How she was supposed to hold it together while they saved Russia was beyond him. Why anyone would expect her to was unfathomable, especially when the 'anyone' in question was someone like Charlene.

"Will you _please_ attempt it until we board the plane. I'll talk to you then, when we'll need to discuss our plans. As for right now, I think shutting up would be the most beneficial route for you to take."

"Why do we have to wait 'til we're on the plane?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow, sure she'd gotten one over on him again.

"Because there are people here." He replied, not looking up from his book.

"And the plane will also contain people, and will probably be a lot quieter as well." She said, not letting his valid point slow her down.

"Because so many people are bound to be going from Alaska to Siberia at one in the morning." He said.

She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest as she slumped her shoulders. Hunched over in an airport chair was probably the least comfortable position she could have chosen, but God forbid she move. Her bulldog level tenacity really was going to get her killed one day.

She might as well just take a nap.

_Yello all. Sorry for the lack of updatedness. Much thanks to onthewritetrack, who's review gave me motivation to keep going. See, you should all review. It leads to results.  
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